It seems, it feels remarkable that the final contest of the 2025 Fall Classic echoes so many of the beats that were produced in the final World Series game in 1912. 113 years ago. The remarkable-ness comes from opposite poles. How in the world can two events separated by so […]
Three times in his career, Whitey Ford accepted the starting assignment in a Game 6 with his Yankees facing the dire commandment – win or go away. The first time this not so impossible mission presented itself, Ford got to stand atop his home mound of dirt, and, perhaps feeling […]
During the 1973 postseason, Mets right-hander Tom Seaver fanned 13 Reds in the first game of the NLCS and then sat down a dozen Athletics in the third game of the Fall Classic. Exceptional strikeout tallies for the time, but probably not that surprising. After all, the 28-year-old had already […]
There’s exhilarating footage of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig taking batting practice before the 1927 World Series – a kind of perfect encapsulation of the knockout combination these two provided. Watching one finish and the other begin, there is a sense and acknowledgment of the devastation about to be wrought: […]
A brief history of the timeline connecting the dots between teams repeating as World Series champions begins in 1908, when the Cubs of Tinker, Evers and Chance (along with Steinfeldt and a quartet of pitchers) took down the Tigers in five games. Soon after, the Athletics (1910-1911), Red Sox (1915-1916) […]
George Springer’s very first brush with the postseason, a single-game elimination affair in the 2015 AL Wild Card Game, occurred – somewhat appropriately, it now seems – in New York against the Yankees; for over the next 10 years, as the outfielder/DH has piled up an extraordinary amount of playoff […]
As if he hadn’t already generated enough thrills during his mania-inducing season, Fernando Valenzuela took the Dodger Stadium hill on October 10, 1981 with his club down 2-1 in the best-of-five opening series, one more loss to the Astros away from having the rest of the year off. So the […]
“Sandy Koufax for two weeks …” For nearly 20 years, that’s how I’ve thought of (and described to others) what Kenny Rogers did from October 6 through October 22 in 2006. That was, and is, overstating the case a little bit, but somehow the hyperbole seems appropriate, for what that […]
At the end of their spectacular journey in 1970, the World Champion Baltimore Orioles could look at their collective postseason work (a sweep against the Twins in the ALCS, a five-game hold over the Reds in the Fall Classic) and point to and acknowledge a few standout individual batting performances: […]
It’s October 10, 1948. A reported 86,288 fans are on needles and pins at Cleveland Municipal Stadium to see if the Indians can clinch the franchise’s first World Series title since 1920. The incomparable Bob Feller gets the start for Cleveland, a shot at redemption after losing Game 1 to […]